murfchck

No joke! I'm thinking something along the lines of a sugar level tester for diabetics. She can put a little hole that draws blood quicker than the blink of an eye!

I am far from an expert but in my case, Bongo was my first and just settling in when within a month a macaw moved in. He was still okay with this, then another macaw moved in. He became a little off put, but still ok at this point. THEN another grey moved in, not liking it, no way, no how. He became cage aggressive and although he doesn't bite he sure tried to. After reading about their behavior, we took a step back and let him start making his own choices. We had thought he liked being out on his stand because he always did before so we would pick him up and put him there, come to find out by letting him choose, he just wanted to chill in and on his cage. He calls for us when he is ready to come out and we gladly go get him. This has all but stopped the meanness that had started and by letting him watch us with the other fids, instead of forcing him to join what we believe should be fun, he is coming out of his shell and becoming more playful than he has ever been. This is not an overnight fix, nothing is, but it really does help. Just giving them the respect of a choice does so much for their fragile egos!

I knew Gabby was smart but i didn't know she was an inventor! Please note this can is empty but no cans, full or not, are safe around her. I am sure that her biggest joy is shoving things off of tables to watch them spill! In this picture, she made herself the handle so we wouldn't have to hold a cold can.

Bubba is not liking his cage very much. It has been a week now and he won't use any of the perches but the one on top. Not sure whats up with this. He won't even use the swinging perch which was in his other cage and that was all he use to sit on. I have not seen him eating in there either which bothers me. If i hold his bowls up to him he eats like a pig, if i lure him down with a nut, he uses the sides of the cage gets his nut and runs right back up. His other cage, which we knew was temporary, was an okay size but almost too small for him. It was just the same cage as his first owners had so we got it for him so he would feel safe in the begining. Should i put a bowl up top for him or let him come down when he is hungry or thirsty? I fear if i give in to him, he will never come down to his bowls. Also giving thought to maybe switching him and Oliver. Oliver loves climbing around his so.... Oh i don't know what to do!

Oh what a cutie she is!

This is a touch off the Bubba subject but my Bongo is starting to really play now. I guess watching Gabby and Pat play he is trying to test the waters some. Gabby just loves pushing things off, well, anything they are on. Lost a salt shaker yesterday, and she is now studying my beta bowl. Bongo got on the kitchen counter while i was getting their bowls ready for dinner and one by one tossed them to the floor waiting to hear the bang. And he adores bells, i put in a few new toys for him, small so they wouldn't freak him out and he went right to them sticking his head up in the bell like a hat. He is grabbing things with his foot now that hang and attacks them. This has really been in just the last week, it is so fun to watch him be brave. He even got on the hanging perch in the kitchen over the sink, it moves and i just knew he wouldn't want anything to do with it, i was wrong! Good thing we don't not offer him things we think he will hate, or he would be one bored bird! Lol Haven't had any feathered floors in a few day either!

His biting but not hurting is his way of asking you to stop. Respect his wants and needs and in no time he will come to trust you and allow you to handle him. These guys are pretty darn independant and strong willed so i fear if you continue to force him before he is ready, the biting could get worse and the bonding could take a lot longer, frustrating you both. Our first reaction is to want to cuddle, pet and love them, theirs is to feel safe and understand this new adventure!

Hello and welcome! Can not wait to hear more about your family! I also have a housefull including a 5 yr old and a 20 yr old grey and 5 and 7 yr old blue and golds, 4 dogs and a cat. Can't wait to hear how you juggle them all!

I have one that won't stay on the stand either. I keep putting her back on it each time. In the mean time though we have given her a safe place to fly too since she insists on not using the stand. Just keep putting your bird back on it with food/treats he likes, soon he will stay there longer and longer. Persistance on your end is a must, don't give up!

Welpers, so much for not getting bit by Bubba. Got an excited nip from him tonight trying to get him to his yum-yums. Only one beak imprint that drew blood though so it wasn't meant to hurt! ( got that from the books, and i believe it! Lol)

There wasn't many feathers at all in his cage after work today. He either ran out of feathers in his special hidden plucking area or he was anger plucking because of his new stand. His attitude changed greatly when Gabby moved in so maybe he is just now starting to show us "he ain't happy" about it. Oh who knows! Ignorance really is bliss. We read out parrot behaviour books and i haven't gotten bit by Bubba since then. But trying to apply it to Bongo, i now have watch out for him. He has gotten very testy. He still doesn't bite me but i was starting to think his acting like he is about to is him just trying to play with me. Man, i gotta say that the Bubba bites pain didn't last near as long as the analizing, wondering and self doubt this knowledge has brought to me! Crap, just heard something hit the floor, gotta go see what Gabby is redecorating this time? Do you guys know the movie "Blazing Saddles"? The song "I'm Tired" is now my motto, except my tiredness is the up and down, back and forth,lol!

I think it is official. Bongo is plucking. When the light hit this morning under and around the stand, i actually went looking for a dead bird that maybe the cat brought in. In the last month, i have been keeping an eye on him. Seeing more than i liked in his cage and stand but kept telling (lying) to myself that it was a molt. Going to get a vet check as soon as i can, don't see any bare patches on him but he holds himself so tight i can't see under his wings or on his back. I hope the picture shows the amout of his feathers from last night. They are all the light grey ones, both down and regular feathers, only one large dark grey one.

Thanks, and yes, you can come play in the window! I worked some last night on a hanging poop catcher. Really want to keep the floor clear and the dogs from getting to it, well see how this turns out since i am having to rig it since my sewing machine took a dive off the shelf. The swing over the sink isn't going to work. The greys are scared of the movement and Oliver doesn't have the balance, Bubba loves it but also loves the wood of my cabinets. I still have 5 large 42" perches to put into the cages of the greys but am taking it slow for them, letting them settle in from the stand change right now. Although Bongo uses the stand, i can see his nerves are showing some. I maybe really wrong but since Bongo has chewed and picked 2 boings down to the wire, i started seeing him chewing his feathers a whole bunch. I thought i would remove the boing for a bit and see if he improves any. Pat keeps telling me the feathers i am finding are in equal numbers so not to panic yet, it may be a molt. I bathe him, but really, he doesn't get wet. I can handle picking but my worry is that he isn't happy and if i can do something to prevent it, thats what i want to do. If its not one bird, its another! Yikes! Oh yeah, Bubba said "Whoa, wow" yesterday. His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds since his butt got fixed! I must of heard "Pat, stop it, go" 15 times yesterday while Pat was at work. And "Shut up" to the dogs everytime they barked, which was often.

Hopefully the pictures will show what that pile in the back of the car turned into! Took us from 9am to 5pm and only one trip to Home Depot to complete. ( sorry about the one picture, Bubba wanted in it really bad i guess) But we got our stand(s) for the greys! I thought we would have an issue with them getting on it but nope. Bongo got on it and started smacking the bell! Best thing is nothing on the floor to sweep around. Going to try and make a catch all to attach under it, we'll see how that goes, lol. Harnesses, ha, big ole waste of money and that was one of the main things we went for. After we got home and took them out first thing we noticed was it said it was for a grey but would fit a budgie, the macaw size may fit the greys but i undid it and now we can't figure out how it goes back together!

Yeah Jayd, peanuts are out of their diets, like i said they only bit them so i stopped wasting my money months ago, not to mention the health risk. (i read about it a while ago on here and stopped then) :-)

Haha, went to the bird fair (mart) show yesterday! Been waiting and planning and saving for this for months! Sad to say that if it were not for 2 vendors there, it would have been a let down. Almost every booth there with toys we just as expensive as the pet stores, one even higher. One booth we did find though, hand made all their toys and had just the perches we were hoping to find. We pretty much bought every large perch they had and 2 double perch swings, single swings and oh so much more. All their stuff was made of Dragonwood. Filled up the back of my jeep! Long ride home though with all the bells ringing, so we stopped for lunch. While there we started talking about a huge double macaw cage that we saw. Pat got the guys card out and called him and offered him a price he would pay for it if they didn't sell it by the end of the show. The guy said he didn't care to wait and he would bring it to us in 30 minutes and would include step perches since we would be using it for just one bird, Bubba. SOLD! It is actually only 12" in length bigger than Olivers and maybe 10" taller so now they both have a palace. While he was here we started talking about stands and how we were wanting a double stand for our two greys to share but still have their own space. He got the measurements for our bay window area in the kitchen area and said he would make us one! The bottom will be the entire area so the poop will actually hit it and not the floor, i can not wait to see what he comes up with.

Changing a name could be tricky. I tried on two of mine, one stuck, the other we had to go back to his original name, Bongo. Not my fav name but its his so... My opinion only but, looking back changing his name seemed to set us back, its like we made a difficult situation he was already facing even more confusing by not using a name that he was use to. We took him from his "home", good or bad, new people, new routines, new cages then a new name, its like i took everything he had that made him feel secure away. He stopped talking the second day here and now only whistles, i feel i am to blame for this for trying to rush him into adapting to what i knew would be so much better for him when he was just feeling scared.

My greys will not eat anything nut related, not peanuts, walnuts or peanut butter. Both however love crunching the peanut shells but after the first chomp, they drop it. Strange for one bird to dislike nuts, stranger for two!

Thanks! I thought that about Oliver but i'm his "mommy" and love is blind so... Lol Okay, so remember me saying Bubbas previous owners told me he swears? I didn't believe them, have never heard anything close to a cuss word. Welp, guess i better open my ears wider. Had complete strangers in our home tonight when Bubba dropped the "f" bomb, so they told me, i wasn't in the room. I don't blush but boy did i tonight. He made some noises after that we think the guy may have mistaken for that word, cuz when he says something it is clear as a bell, man i hope hope he didn't say that. Oliver was a show off, we were shocked at how social he was, lifting his foot to step up. We told them all not to get close though, told them how far their necks stretch out. They were scared so kept a good distance.

Cantalope.... Hands down. Bongo would do a back flip if i asked. Bubba and Oliver, pecans (this month anyway) Gabby, anything Pat offeres her! ( if i try to give her anything, i get snubbed)

I agree with you both on that and talked with Pat this afternoon about stopping it, Lol, he also agreed so he is changing it to "bock bock chicken" now. Thank heavens! Bubba finally tried his orange juice popsicle, he liked it! Then he helped me with dinner. Gabby tried to help but flying by and stealing potato skins was not really a help since we had to stop everything and chase her to get them back. Oliver even joined in but Bongo was scared of everyone around so he stayed on his stand and watched.

Tried again. Guess what?! I got another gmail account. Maybe it just doesn't work on a tablet and i need to move to the big computer. I will try that today. Bubba and Bongo were very vocal yesterday, i had to get out the voice recorder because i knew Pat wouldn't believe just how vocal. I am so glad i had it recording, Bubba said "hi beautiful" to me. (ok so i am choosing to think he said it to me even though i was in the kitchen at the time. He won't say my name or mama so i am claimimg this phrase!) A few minutes later he also said "shut up, go" to which i am going to say he said to the barking dogs, who also were very vocal. I am trying to change that to "hush puppies". Hubby is trying to fluster his mom, who is very political, by teaching bubba to respond to the question, who do you want for president and him reply with Barack, then do his evil laugh like he is mocking her and knows it will make her mad. He has the name down now and repeats it over and over, whether we ask the question or not! Boy will Thanksgiving at our house be fun! : / Lol ( sad, we are still undecided, and now Bubba saying Barack sounds like he is trying to convince us!)

Argggg! It may take me a bit. Gotta learn u tube, never posted to it before. I am not sure how else to post. I will get it on there though! Okay, i am missing something here. In the last hour i have managed to do nothing more than create yet another gmail address but still can't get into youtube! It keeps telling me i am logged in but i am not! Frustrating i tell ya! No wonder my birds are goofy, look who is trying to train them! Lol Yikes!

Thats the one Gabby has also. I will say cleaning it is kinda hard since i put the paper on top of the grates, that little door on the lower side makes it hard to reach the back, but i still would buy it again as she loves the levels.

How funny! I got video of Pat running with Bubba, just have no clue how to upload it. Going to try and figure it out today though. I laughed till i darn near peed my pants. Pat took off running and Bubba let out an "arrrrrrrrrr" during the run. We guess it is his version of weeeeeee!